Workers' participation : its development and legal implications

Abstract

The participation of man in running the affairs and activities which directly interest him has been the object of an upsurge of interest in recent years. Thus the Intimacy and importance which a job has to its incumbent has rendered workers' participation a topical and interesting theme. In the field of participation two major directions can be marked out: on the one hand, in political life in the immediate political environment and activities; and on the other, the participation of the working man in his place of work. The first branch is related and actually merges with the problem of political democracy and as such is very well known: the second subject is far less developed and is more discussed. In a sense it can be said that the process of economic democratization or economic participation trails considerably behind the process of political democratization and political self-determination. This is also reflected In the state of our knowledge. Nonetheless, enough of significance has been written on the subject of economic participation under the various headings of self-management, labour management. workers' management, workers' control, industrial democracy or producer cooperation to lay the foundations of workers' participation on solid ground.